Lez Graham writes in Our Dogs Newspaper in response to the Dog Trust  Factsheet.
‘DOG BEHAVIOUR PROBLEMS – why do they do it and what can you do?' is the title of a recent fact sheet from the Dogs Trust that's not so hot on the facts - if you were to follow it to the letter, you could cause behaviour problems in your dog and potentially a hefty vets bill... however before we get down to the nitty gritty of it let's just try our hand at a little quiz I've created from the advice given.
• Your dog is being aggressive towards you over his toys.
What should you do about it?
• Remove the toys and control the time he has with them, spending time playing
with the toys with him and putting them away afterwards ?
• Give him more toys?
If you answered A, then according to the dogs trust you'd be exacerbating the problem as “ so-called dominance issues usually arise when resources are scarce” . What the factsheet states is “ A dog can become defensive over resources when they are scarce or when he thinks they are being threatened – because they then become very valuable to him. For a dog to feel safe in his environment and to prevent this type of defensive aggression starting, it is essential to ensure that he has plenty of resources, and especially those he seems to value most.” This advice is telling your that if your dog is aggressive give it more toys to be aggressive over.
• Your dog has decided that vans and buses are scary.
Do you?
• Take your dog out and de-sensitise him to the traffic
• Avoid all traffic
Yes you'd think it would be A wouldn't you... nope! The factsheet states in relation to fear “ In practical terms this may mean avoiding anything that causes fear ” All very well if you live in the back of beyond and never encounter anything out of the ordinary with your dog, but this is restrictive on the owner and unfair on the dog under ordinary circumstances.
• When do you think the best time would be to feed your dog? 
• Before you walk him
• After you walk him
Yes, of course you would walk him first, we never eat before we exercise; it can cause all sorts of tummy upsets, yet the Dogs Trust Factsheet states “ try to feed about an hour before walks if possible ”. It's well documented by various vets that your dog should not be walked within two hours of eating for fear of inducing bloat and gastric torsion.
New owner
Although the fact sheet isn't as yet loaded on the Dogs Trust site, it was given to me to be able to use and hand out. As the Education and Development Officer (EDO) for the Guild of Dog Trainers my role is not just for the education of Guild members, but also of the public in relation to dog ownership and training. I first of all read the advice given as a new owner would and thought ok, if I knew nothing about dogs then I would probably use this as a mini-bible, especially if I took a Dogs Trust dog; as a dog behaviourist I thought this advice will potentially get lots of new dog owners into lots of trouble and felt I needed to do something about it.
The factsheet is incredibly generalised to say the least and isn't backed up with any evidence or examples; it is also extremely anthropomorphic and very emotive, stating things like the dog will feel “ that life is not worth living ” . This is just playing on people's heart strings and is deplorable and exploitative.
Here is a selection of some of the areas covered by the fact sheet and my comments as an experienced dog trainer.
Fear and the need for Safety
As quite rightly stated fear can trigger aggressive responses, however to say that your dog may be aggressive because it's scared you're going to take its toy away (and then later say to prevent it your dog needs more toys) is leading the reader up the proverbial garden path. No wonder bite incidents have risen (in some areas of the country by 80%) and more people are handing their dogs in for re-homing than ever before. The dogs ‘resources' are those that we give to them and are ours to take away which is why, as dog behaviourists, we advise owners to have allotted play times with their dogs and then remove the toys afterwards to prevent this type of behaviour starting in the first place. Recent research has established that a dog being aggressively possessive with things is the first manifestation of dominance aggression which can culminate in aggression towards its owner. 
Anthropomorphism is weaved constantly through the factsheet, strumming the reader's heartstrings... ”if a dog is feeling scared, he is unable to worry about doing anything else except trying to be safe ”. We need to ask ourselves (as the Guild of Dog Trainers have asked the Dogs Trust) Do dogs worry? Surely this is a human emotion that a dog isn't capable of feeling. He can be anxious in the moment or show apprehension – worry is to do with the future and what ‘may' or may not come to pass... worry doesn't belong in the here and now, which of course is where the dog lives.
Food, Food and more Food
The sections that are related to food are at best dodgy and at worst dangerous. There are contradictions galore from “your dog needing company while eating” ; to “ eating before your dog causes begging behaviour” (no, feeding your dog from the table will cause begging); to “ never let your dog get really hungry ” (what, not even those obese Labradors?) and to “ give dried bull's pizzles as chew treats” – if, like me, you don't know what a bulls pizzle is let me enlighten you, it's a dried bulls penis. But the dog does not know – is the advice about chews or about what the chew is made of?
A diet of brown pasta with protein is recommended as being beneficial for dogs in relation to behaviour, however, not all dogs can tolerate wheat, and pasta can ‘bind' them.
As noted in the quiz, the advice given is to “ try to feed about an hour before walks if possible” as “being exercised before the first meal of the day may also lead to problems”
but what these problems are is not stated and I canvassed a few colleagues and none of us are aware of any.
 Feeding first not only goes against the natural behaviour of the dog it can also be dangerous. Dogs are hunters: they hunt to eat. Walking prior to eating not only mimics the natural behaviour of the canid, it also wakes up the nervous system, stimulates the digestive system and triggers peristalsis in the intestines to ‘clear out the old and make way for the new'. Gastric torsion and bloat can be brought about by walking within 2 hours of eating. The Guild would be very surprised if any vet would recommend eating first and endorse the advice given.
And finally, the advice given over where to feed your dog is poor to say the least which is not to feed your dog where you leave him when you go out or where he's shut in. As any good dog trainer knows the way you crate train is to feed the dog in the crate then they associate great things happening in the crate and so are more relaxed about going in. If a dog is scared of getting in the car, feed it in the car for a few days, it'll soon be jumping in, this is just bog standard desensitisation. This is very basic and is probably one of the first things you learn as a trainer or behaviourist.
Dominance Reduction Programmes
Most of this section is based on hearsay and needs to be questioned. The majority of modern successful behaviourists use common sense rules, for example:
• Make your dog get up if it's lying in the doorway because if your dog is used to moving out of your way you're not at risk of tripping over it
• Go through doorways first. You would never allow a child to go running through the door first as you have no idea what's on the other side and whether it's safe to do so - the same should apply for your dog
• Not letting your dog pull on the lead. Well who on earth wants a dog that pulls them around - this can lead to neck and shoulder problems for the owner and the dog.
The dog being a pack animal needs another animal to lead it, in the dog pack it would be the pack leader / the most senior ranking dog, in the home it's the human, the most senior ranking animal... we tell them what to do and when to do it, that makes us in charge; not only of the dogs antics but of its well-being and safety. It makes sense that behaviourists train owners to be good leaders (or as the dogs trust calls them mother/aunt/uncle figure ) and is why leadership plans are used.
 When trying to undermine dominance in the dog pack the f actsheet is quite derogatory in relation to why we have rules for our dogs to follow. It says “It is claimed that these rules are based on the natural behaviour and dominance hierarchies of Grey Wolves – however, the studies that were used to base these assumptions on were made using captive wolf packs that showed very unnatural behaviour” and yet the factsheet compares pet dogs to wild dogs, which would behave very differently should they be captive .
Surely looking at another captive canid would make more sense than an animal that is free to come and go as it chooses. Bear in mind also that the domestic dog is a descendant of the wolf and had its ‘official name' changed to “Canis Lupus Familiaris” from Canis Familiaris in 1993 to recognise the fact (Canis Lupus is the Grey Wolf).
Boundaries
I am also concerned that the dog is anthropomorphised throughout this leaflet: emotions attributed to it as worry and feeling “that life is not worth living”. How can the dog be monitored for this state of mind? This is playing on the emotions of owners, or potential owners, which w ill lead to dogs not having boundaries and an y discipline in their lives.
The factsheet is misleading and confusing in relation to punishment as one moment it refers to punishment in the context of discipline, then in the context of abuse and then in relation to operant conditioning. If the Dogs Trust is aiming to confuse the public in relation to what operant conditioning is, then there is no doubt that this factsheet will succeed.
While on the subject of operant conditioning the factsheet is giving out incorrect and dangerous advice in relation to using positive reinforcement: referring to positive reinforcement being a good thing, “Simply because it can't do any harm” but, as is stated a page later, “[positive reinforcement] can lead to massive frustration for the dog and potentially aggressive behaviour towards the owner ” so not only is the factsheet imparting irresponsible and dangerous advice to the new dog owner, it contradicts itself by acknowledging that aggression can be the result. It also rather rashly states that “ punishment and negative reinforcement are ‘bad'” – using the logic in the factsheet what is a recall if not negative punishment, after all you're taking a way something nice – the dog's freedom to do what it wants.
A very rash statement indeed, as the findings in the largest and most comprehensive world study on Dog Behaviour and Aggression by the University of Cordoba noted; the factors that had the greatest influence on dominance aggression were those linked with the owner, namely ;
• how spoilt the dog was (giving food from family meals, allowing it to lie on the furniture, allowing it to sleep on the bed and so on)
• whether any basic training had been done
• level of exercise
• and finally, but statistically the most important, punishment used.
For those of us directly involved in dog behaviour it is reassuring that there is up to date scientific evidence to back up what we all know to be innately true, namely, that dogs need leaders and for those leaders to exercise appropriate control. While we all use rewards in training, after all what is a smile coupled with a good boy, people who work with dogs know that, on occasion, discipline is necessary.
Dogs are companions: they are not on the same intellectual level as humans and, as such, it is our duty to define the boundaries of what is acceptable and what is not. These boundaries are not arbitrarily set by dog behaviourists, they are there to ensure the safety and well-being of all; the GoDT sees boundaries as a way of keeping owners and members of the public safe and, by extension, the dogs themselves.
Lez Graham MGoDT (MT) MCFBA
Educational and Development Officer
|
